1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a translucent rigid substrate laminate and a translucent rigid substrate bonding apparatus, and particularly to a method of manufacturing a plate glass laminate for manufacturing a protection glass of a display element and a plate glass bonding apparatus used in a process of manufacturing the protection glass of the display element.
2. Description of the Related Art
Display elements such as liquid crystal displays (LCDs), organic EL displays (OELDs), electroluminescent displays (ELDs), field emission displays (FEDs), and plasma displays (PDPs) are used in display devices of various kinds of electronic equipment such as televisions, laptop computers, car navigations, electronic calculators, mobile phones, electronic organizers and personal digital assistants (PDAs). Further, a plate glass product for protection is generally installed to face the display element in order to protect the display element.
This plate glass product is obtained by processing the plate glass in size and shape suitable for each display device, but it is required that a large amount of plate glass products are processed at high production efficiency in order to cope with a price level required in the market.
Accordingly, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2009-256125 (Patent Literature 1) proposes a method of increasing production efficiency of a plate glass product. Specifically, Patent Literature 1 proposes “a method of processing a plate glass, comprising: forming a material glass block (A) obtained by laminating a plurality of material plate glasses (1) and integrally fixing each material plate glass (1) by a strippable fixing material 2 interposed between the material plate glasses 1, forming division glass blocks (B) having a small area by dividing the material glass block (A) in a surface direction, forming product glass blocks (C) in a product form when viewed in a plan view by processing at least the outer peripheries of the division glass blocks (B), and individually separating the product glass blocks (C) after edge faces of the product glass blocks (C) are processed” (claim 1). Accordingly, there is described that “since division, external shape processing and edge face processing are performed while a plurality of material plate glasses are laminated, a plurality of plate glass products may be obtained by a few processes and productivity is high” (paragraph 0007).
Further, Patent literature 1 describes that “the fixing material (2) interposed between the material plate glasses (1) is a photo-curable liquid fixing material that is cured when ultraviolet rays are irradiated and softened when a temperature is increased (claim 4). Accordingly, there is described that “if a pressure is vertically applied with the photo-curable liquid fixing agent interposed between the upper and lower material plate glasses, the liquid fixing agent spreads to have a constant thickness in a film form over the entire surface between the upper and lower material plate glasses. If infrared rays are irradiated in this state, the liquid fixing agent spreading in the film form is cured to integrally fix the upper and lower plate glasses. Therefore, a plurality of material plate glasses may be quickly laminated with high precision so as to be integrally fixed. In addition, if the product glass block is immersed in warm water or the like to increase the temperature after final processing (edge face processing), the fixing agent cured between the plate glasses is softened and separated in a film form. Therefore, it is easy to recover and treat the fixing agent without causing environmental pollution (paragraph 0007).
The column of “Best Modes for Carrying Out the Invention” of Patent Literature 1 describes that twenty material plate glasses are laminated while a photo-curable liquid fixing agent is interposed between the material plate glasses, subsequently, the fixing agent is cured by irradiating ultraviolet rays (UV rays) to the upper surface of the laminated material plate glasses, and the material glass block in which the upper and lower material plate glasses are integrally fixed is formed (paragraphs 0010 to 0011).